Sunday Scribblings #63 Spicy

This week’s Sunday Scribblings is “Spicy”. I do not like spicy food. Not for lack of trying. I have tried jalapeno peppers and chilies and so on. It just doesn’t flip my skirt.

A few years ago, Sweet Baboo and I went to NM for a few days. On the way back to Albuquerque from Las Cruces, we stopped in Hatch — billed as the Chile capital of the world. We got off US 25 and drove through this little burg that is literally surrounded by chile fields, which is in turn surrounded by the desert. In town, everywhere you looked were dried chiles, chiles in baskets, chiles in bags, braided chiles — you get the idea. The only thing you could smell was the aroma of chile. Even now if I think about it, I can remember what the town smelled like and even though I don’t eat it, the fragrance was pleasing.

Hatch throws a Chile Festival every Labor Day weekend. If you’d like to read more about it, click here.

Ambling around the yard

Just took a spin around to see what is new and blossomed. All of these pictures are clickable so you can see them full size.

This is my first peony of the year. I bought 3 peony plants a few years ago in a Woman’s Day magazine — two of them blossom every year and the third has never gotten bigger than a foot high and doesn’t blossom. I just love peonies. Can’t say the same for the ants that help them flower.

This is a Siberian Iris (King of Kings, I think. I could be wrong. I’m not very good at remembering the names.) Blossoms beautifully by the front step every year. It gets about 2 feet tall. I have another one out back that is a beautiful purple color, but every year I forget about it until the blossoms are all gone. I think I did it again this year.

This little pink posey I’m sure has a name but I don’t know what it is, or forgot it if I ever knew. It’s a cute little mound of green and pink that just sits beside my step and keeps growing year after year. It was a little bit of a thing when I planted it — about a foot across now, it’s only about 6″ high. I think someone told me that it like concrete so I should plant it by the steps. (That sounds a little bizarre, doesn’t it?)

This is my ten year old bleeding heart. This plant will bloom almost until frost. I’ve never known a bleeding heart to do this, but I think it’s because it’s protected by the house and gets the sun at the end of the day. It was also a little bit of a thing when I put it in. Actually this is the second spot it’s been in. It didn’t do so well at first in another part of the yard, so I moved it. Been doing great ever since.

And this is our crazy doo dah cat, Sadiemae. I call it “Anticipation”. Can you see the nesting box just above her head? I think she’s hoping that a bird will fall out of the nesting box and into her mouth. Always optimistic, that one. The sparrows don’t say much, but I can always tell when she is sitting below the wren’s box because they squawk like the dickens.